Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This a film I have seen so many times before, but one that I haven’t watched in years.

I suddenly felt like I wanted to watch it again after seeing a music video at the weekend that had scenes of the film in the background. I can’t for the life of me remember what the song was or who the band was (we watched a lot of early 2000’s pop punk videos on YouTube that night) and no amount of Googling is helping, so I give up with that quest.

But since then, I haven’t been able to get Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind out of my head, so I did what was only right, and watched it.

I remember loving this film from the first time I saw it and feeling very deeply towards it but – my god – I don’t remember it affecting me the way it did today.

The story is about one man’s (Joel’s) painful journey to erase his impulsive ex-girlfriend (Clementine) from his memory after he finds out she had already done this to him. Joel loves Clementine too much go on feeling the way he does about her when she doesn’t even know who he is anymore. So after finding out he’s been erased from her memory he decides it’s best if he has the same treatment.

We then follow him through his procedure and into his memories and, like him, can only watch as every last trace of Clementine is set about to be taken away.

Our two complex lead characters are played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. And although at first it is kinda hard to watch Carrey play a mostly serious role, you are totally engulfed in his story by the end. They do a great job together.

We see all the bad times towards the end of their relationship that Joel is happy to get rid of, but as they go deeper into his mind and memories, he is reminded of all the love and good times they shared too and he realises he doesn’t want to lose everything of her.

I remember being saddened by this film when I’ve watched it before but today I found it utterly heart-breaking and I’m not ashamed to say that I sobbed nearing the end. Sobbed.

I think I must have been overly putting myself into their shoes with this one as even typing what the story is about is making me well up again. Just the thought of not being with my husband anymore for whatever reason is too much to bear, so much so that I know I would need to have this procedure done, there would be no way for me to function otherwise. But then I’ve been with him since I was 16, I couldn’t possibly have that much of my life erased so I know I would have to live with the heart-break instead, and would I really want to lose all the good and bad memories of the times we’ve shared together – as they say ‘it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’. What I’m trying to say in that ball of craziness is that the film got to me and made me think, and what could make a film more real than that?

If you haven’t seen it and fancy something a bit philosophical then you should definitely give this one a go.

Have you seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind? I’d love to know what you thought of it.

Until next time. x